


Retirement

by IgnisAlis



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 12:42:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IgnisAlis/pseuds/IgnisAlis
Summary: Contains Endgame spoilers.  Unbeta'd ficlet of a scene that should have been.





	Retirement

**Author's Note:**

> So. I was very, very pissy about the ending scene of Endgame. And when discussing it with friends who were not annoyed, we realized it was because they thought there had been a conversation offscreen. So. Here is the scene that should have been, imo.

Bucky was making another round of the battlefield, helping to locate survivors, and keeping an eye out for enemies. Supposedly they'd all been disintegrated, but he didn't totally trust that. Better to be overcautious.  
He rounded some rubble-- the corner of a building? hard to tell-- and there was Steve. 

"Hey."  
"Hey," Steve greeted wearily. Everything about Steve looked worn down. Shoulders slumped, eyes tired, even the shield was in pieces. "I'm too old for this."  
" _We're_ too old for this," Bucky corrected. "We're the same age, punk."  
"Not anymore. You're five years younger, now." Steve looked at him, then, staring at him like he was the last glass of water in the desert. 

What had happened while he was gone, Bucky wondered. What the hell had happened to Steve?

"Still too old for this."

"I'm retiring," Steve announced, abruptly, foot nudging the shattered shield.  
"Will they let you?" He didn't mean it like it sounded, but Steve's face fell, and he scrambled to fix it. "We'll find someplace off the grid. Back in Wakanda, maybe."  
"That's close enough to get calls." Steve's mouth twisted. "But what other choice is there? Space? I'd be more lost than I am here."  
Bucky shrugged, and sat down next to him. He didn't have answers, all he could do was be present.

 

Later, meeting Steve's eyes before he stepped on the platform, Bucky remembered that conversation. And an older one.  
"Don't do anything stupid."  
"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." 

It was all the permission he could give, without the others catching on. 

Bucky stared as his best friend in the world, the only person who remembered him for who he used to be, vanished into the past.  
He waited, slowly counting, not sure whether to hope for Steve to return or for him to stay gone. When he stayed gone, Bucky's heart hurt, and his breath caught.  
Too far away to summon. The perfect retirement.

His gaze swept the clearing, settling on the silhouette of a man who hadn't been there before. _Steve_.  
Bucky watched while Steve talked to Sam, passing on the shield, transferring the weight of Captain America to strong young shoulders.  
He wasn't sure what the future held for them now. But Steve had laugh lines where there had been sorrow before, so maybe things were looking up.


End file.
